-
-
Ad Space
(728 x 90)
Published at 12:36pm
Sonic Gourmet Tapeworm would make an excellent name for a punk band....
Sign up today!
Want to try concocting a homemade ale but think it sounds too complicated? “If you can boil water and stir a pot, you can begin brewing [beer],” says home-brew ambassador Charlie Papazian. The author of the indispensable The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Collins, $14.95) may be exaggerating a tad, but the truth is, you don’t have to be a scientist to brew your own beer.
To get started, Papazian suggests newbies join the American Homebrewers Association (beertown.org) to find other people who love beer as much as they do. Plus, you can glean some beer wisdom from folks in the local Chicago Beer Society (chibeer.org).
When you’re ready to buy supplies, hit sites like morebeer.com or northernbrewer.com, and local shops like Brew & Grow (1824 N Besly Ct, 773-395-1500) or Beverage Art (10033 S Western Ave, 773-233-7579) to find a starter kit, which will include everything you need from boil to bottle. Although the initial investment of $100 or so might seem steep, know that soon you’ll be drinking fine ales that would normally fetch $30 for a case; you’ll have spent about the same for double the beer.
On brewing day, you should clear about five hours for beer-making and be sure your working area is completely sanitized (one tablespoon of household bleach per gallon of warm water will do the trick)—nothing ruins a good beer quicker than bacteria.
We suggest starting with an extract-recipe kit (where the fermentable sugars have been extracted from the grains for you, and are in the form of a syrup or powder); all-grain recipes require mashing (soaking the grains in hot water to allow the enzymes to convert the starches into sugars), sparging (rinsing the mashed grains with water to get the sugar out of the grain and into your wort) and extra equipment.
Though different recipes call for different ingredients and processes, the brewing steps are pretty basic (consult your kit for explicit instructions): Boil water; steep the grains; add sugars; add hops; cool the wort and pour it in a fermenter bucket; add yeast; wait two weeks (painful); transfer to bottling bucket; add sugar water; bottle; wait another three weeks (extremely painful); drink.
While enduring those weeks might seem almost cruel, when it comes time to pop the tops, you’ll realize the freshness of a homebrew makes it taste better than anything you’ll find on store shelves—and well worth the wait.
